1.0 Introduction
Attendance and punctuality have always been the priority institution or organization as it enhances its efficiency and productivity. Illegal absence or lack of punctuality on the part of the employees automatically reflects on the efficiency of the organization or firm, thus threatening its existence. Hence there is a great demand for an efficient, accurate and secure way of checkmating the activities of the employee as per attendance and punctuality. Many organizations and firms have lost and invested a lot in the bid to have this problem fixed.
Interestingly, the computer-based digital staff attendance register has presented itself as a messiah to the problem as it provides a faster, efficient, accurate and secure means of monitoring the employees' attendance to work. This technology has been highly enriched with anti-tamper mechanism and is highly secured with a computer or administrative personnel. In this design, passwords and logins have been added to secure the employees profile as every data collected is stored in a data memory unit incorporated into the device.
The digital staff attendance register makes effective use of the microcontroller chip, which is in itself a computer. In it is also incorporated a memory unit for storing the employees data in separate units. It also has the keyboard as its major input device through which the employees' data are entered into the microcontroller. init is also incorporated the multiplexed seven (7) segment display unit, as it s output device, through which the processed data or information about the employees attendance status are displayed. Hence this device can be classified as a computer.
This devise can be used in an organization that has well over a hundred (100) employees.
But for simplicity, this project work has been design to accommodate only four users (employees). Each user is assigned a password or pass code with which he/she logs onto the system each day of his attendance to work. An administrative password is also made available with which the administrator accesses the attendance status of all the employees.
Incorporated in the design also are some devices and functions such as the power supply section and security functions. The power supply section consists of a six Volts (6V) DC power supply which ensures a constant supply of DC voltage require for the normal functioning of the system. The security function monitors the manipulation of the system by the employees so as to ensure there is no double entering of a pass code within the same day (i.e. 24 hours), as well to ensure that an employee does not intrude or access other employees' data or information.
This device has been constructed with great simplicity for ease of application and usage as well as ruggedness to ensure its ability to withstand mechanical or environmental stress.
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